Social Media in the Classroom
“With the rise of Web 2.0 social media has exploded on the internet. It permeates almost every aspect of your internet experience. The biggest question here is how can we utilize social media to enhance our online and offline lives? I have always been interested in how social media can help teachers and students achieve more value and enjoy a greater, more interactive learning experience. Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed are just a few of the most popular social sites out there. The need for collaboration in the classroom and, indeed the real world work environment is and has been increasing at an exponential rate. In looking at the wide range of uses for these and other sites, two questions come to mind. Are we able to use these applications as tools for learning? What is the future of social media in an educational environment? For brevity’s sake, we will focus on three distinct applications of web 2.0, Delicious, Twitter and the new Google Wave. These will be used as an outline to show how social media can and is being used in the classroom.”
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